Paul Perez-Barroso is latest candidate for Trenton mayoral race

TRENTON — The election for the next city mayor is more than a year away, but a sixth candidate has hopped in the ring.

Trenton native Paul Perez-Barroso announced Wednesday his intention to run to “reduce the out of control crime rate and bring back his beloved city into renewed prosperity.”

“Trenton is currently experiencing an incredible case of neglect on behalf of the current administration that has systematically wrecked the first responder agencies capabilities to maintain the safety and security of the city,” he said in a statement. “This absence of a secure environment negates any possibility of economic development and investment in the city, therefore the poor jobs situation and limited tax base.”

For the mayoral race, Perez-Barroso joins a field including Mayor Tony F. Mack, who is facing federal corruption charges; longtime city resident and businessman Patrick Hall; Mercer County Deputy Clerk Walker M. Worthy Jr.; former city police Director James Golden; and Eric Jackson, a former city director of public works under Mayor Douglas H. Palmer.

Perez-Barroso is currently president of The Protective Realm, a Virginia-based business development company with an office in Trenton.

He is a retired U.S. Army officer and for the past eight years has served the federal government in the Department of Homeland Security, the Export Import Bank of the United States and the National Institutes of Health.

“I enter this race because I have over 27 years of leadership and government experience and I have practical experience resolving similar issues which have plagued this city and this community for too long,” Perez-Barroso said in a statement. “Every single job or post I have held, I got because I was the most qualified person to do the job and I have been successful every single time.”